Chemistry makes the World go around.

This refers to those products that bring us our prosperity and health. After all, 97 percent of all products are influenced by chemical production. But now our world is changing; the United Nations has provided a new framework for action with its 17 sustainability goals. With a view to future generations, we are all challenged to use the earth’s resources more wisely and to ensure that ecology, economy and social concerns such as job security and a better life for broad sections of society are safeguarded.

When it comes to financing and moving away from a disposable economy towards a circular economy, the time has come to ask ourselves some searching questions:

What influence do these changes have on the allocation of capital, towards a more sustainable governance of our planet? 

Are the appropriate levels of innovation being applied with regard to all three segments of sustainability?

Are the sustainability goals of the United Nations the non-plus-ultra, can or must there even be exceptions in the triad of sustainability? 

Are our financial systems and financing mechanisms suitable for a reorientation of the goals and for survival in the third millennium, when climate change and population growth confront us with hitherto unique human tasks?

Do we only need to rethink? Or do we also have to adapt?